


Captain America/Political Animals AU based on a tumblr gift and posted here before tumblr eats itself

by casspeach



Category: Captain America (Movies), Political Animals
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 04:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16847224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/casspeach/pseuds/casspeach
Summary: A little snippet fic, inspired by a Political Animals/ gifset. I’ve borrowed heavily from Political Animals, and basically given Bucky TJ’s life. Steve is still Steve though, frozen and defrosted but instead of joining SHIELD he’s been shunted around as they try and find a place for a resurrected and inconveniently left of center icon.





	Captain America/Political Animals AU based on a tumblr gift and posted here before tumblr eats itself

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [“Your job is to protect the President’s son, do I make myself perfectly clear?”](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/437725) by jibblyuniverse. 



The door opens, and - score one for truth and honesty - a guy who actually is as cute as the photo he sent opens it.

“You didn’t send a face pic,” he’s saying as he does, and then Bucky watches recognition hit him. “You're—”

“Let’s pretend I’m not,” Bucky says with a grimace, and hopes he can get in the apartment with the door shut behind him before…but no, of course not.

“Is that…?” the guy says. He should be on his knees by now, if he was actually going to be true to his promises, but instead he’s frowning and trying to peer past Bucky’s shoulder into the corridor. “Is that Captain America?”

Bucky fights down the urge to punch the wall. 

“Yes.”

“Is he just gonna stand out there?”

But for the fact that Bucky hasn’t had anything cuter than his own hand around his dick in far too long, the guy’s horrified and confused expression would probably be funny. 

“Yes,” Bucky says irritably, and strips his shirt off.

That at least gets him a flicker of interest, but when he steps forward to try and offer some more hands-on distraction, the guy steps back.

“What, until we’re done?”

Bucky holds his hands up. 

“Unless you want him to come in here,” he says, and regrets it immediately, because Steve is damned irritating, straight-laced and serious and overprotective, but Steve is also hot, and Bucky isn’t sure his ego can take being thrown over for his protection detail right now. “Forget about him. He’s just here in case I need him.”

“Need him for what?”

“Well, you know, if you turn out to be an axe-murderer, or a terrorist, or a kidnapper.” All of which are things Steve had suggested on the drive over here. Of course he’d also said ‘lousy lay’ which had been pretty much the first time Bucky’d been surprised by him. 

“I’m not,” the guy promises seriously, wide-eyed gaze flicking to the door again. “I promise I’m not.”

“Great,” Bucky grins. “So, shall we?”

They do and it’s, well it’s not the worst Bucky’s ever had, but the guy is clearly distracted. To be fair Bucky’s a little distracted as well, no matter how determined he’d been to shock fuddy-duddy Steve with the loud abandon of the casual sex he was going to have. 

Still, the kissing is nice, and it’s beyond good to have someone else’s hands on his skin. 

But when he reaches for the guy’s belt he takes another step away and frowns. 

“I’m sorry,” he says, and he does sound it, but Bucky doesn’t wanna hear it. Doesn’t want to hear what he knows is coming. “I just don’t think I can, not with Captain America standing out there listening. 

"He’s not….” Bucky says, but he already knows it’s a lost cause. “Never mind.”

He picks up his shirt from where he’d let it drop and tries to put it on with good grace. 

“It’s just, you know, he’s kind of a hero of mine, and I feel weird–”

“Seriously, don’t sweat it,” Bucky says and gives his very best campaign-trail smile. “Good to meet you anyway. Vote Barnes.”

Steve is just right where Bucky left him. Filling the hallway and looking righteous and menacing. 

“That was quick,” he says as he follows Bucky out of the nondescript building and back to the car. “And quieter than I’d expected.”

Bucky gives him a glare that bounces off him. But he can’t let Steve think he’s a five second wonder, he just can’t. 

“That’s because you’re an epic cock-block,” he says. “Nothing happened. So I guess Operation: Blue Balls was a success.”

Steve looks across at him. There’s a line between his eyebrows and he looks honestly almost hurt for a moment, like he’s the injured party here. Then it’s gone, replaced by his usual bland superiority.

“Well, if you’d let me vet these men—”

“We tried that! We tried it, and you vetoed every single one of them.” Bucky says, pulling his seatbelt on with extreme prejudice, and sitting back hard in his seat like the petulant teenager he no longer is. But dammit Steve just hits every one of his buttons, every time.

“Well, you have shitty taste in men,” Steve says as he pulls away from the kerb. 

He actually sounds kind of sorry about it, and not only like it’s a character flaw to add to Bucky’s enormously long list. 

“I do, huh?” 

“Half of the men whose names you gave me were already married or in otherwise committed relationships,” Steve says, and lifts a hand from the steering wheel to forestall Bucky’s objection. “And I’m not talking about the ones in open relationships.”

“I don’t care,” Bucky says. “I didn’t make the vows.”

Steve looks at him, longer than is safe for someone without the extraordinary reflexes and peripheral vision he has. The furrow in his brow is back.

“Those men aren’t going to make you happy,” he says. “Some schmuck who’ll lie to his wife, will lie to you, for sure.”

Bucky sighs and looks out of the window, because what’s he going to say? That he’s not looking to be happy? And then there’s the other thing. The thing that he’d thought was looming large over all of this, that he’d thought was the reason the Secret Service had given him Captain Boy Scout to begin with.

“You don’t care that they’re men?”

Steve scoffs. “Of course not,” he says, and if Steve is anything, he is ruthlessly honest. “Why would I care about that?”

It takes Bucky a couple of tries, but he eventually manages to shrug and say, “Because you’re Captain America?”

Steve sighs and scrubs a hand over his face, into his hair. Bucky forgets, and he’s pretty sure everyone does, but Steve is actually only a couple of years older than him.

“Yeah, well, whatever people on the right wing like to claim, Captain America is not a bigot.” He gives Bucky a crooked and genuine grin. “Also I grew up right next to the Naval Dockyards in the 30’s. And let me tell you the rumors about sailors? Totally not overstated.”

They drive a little further in silence, but it’s comfortable. Bucky is almost one-hundred percent sure that the people who made Steve the head of his security detail have no idea of Steve’s actual opinion on Bucky’s sexuality. No one said anything directly, but there was a kind of malevolent glee in the air. His mom might know, maybe, he thinks. Or she might just share Steve’s opinion on his taste.

“Let’s hear it for Captain America,” he says as they approach the White House. “A for ally.”

Steve gets them through the security checkpoint and drives all the way to the garage before he says, “Try B, and don’t make assumptions about people. It’s not polite.”

Bucky pauses midway through getting out of the car and gets back in.

“Wait a second,” he says, and has the sense, or more likely the hard-won habit, to check the garage is empty before he continues. He still drops his voice to a murmur. He’s been outed against his will. It wasn’t an experience he’d wish on Steve. “B? For bisexual?”

“We do exist,” Steve says, mostly in good humor.

“No, I, I know, it’s just. So what, you think your taste in men is better?”

“I know my taste in men is better,” Steve shoots back, and the cocky son-of-a-bitch clearly means it. “Not least because the only way to go is up.”

“That guy was nice,” Bucky objects, waving a hand towards the back of the car because he doesn’t exactly know which direction the guy’s home is in. 

“He’s got a boyfriend.” Steve says, and he sounds almost sorry. “They’re on a shared lease and have just put in an offer on an apartment in Maryland.”

Which, Bucky wants to make the point again about it not being on him to preserve the integrity of someone else’s relationship, but he’d actually asked when they’d chatted online, and been lied to, so his heart isn’t in it.

“Okay, fine,” he says. “Make me a short list if you’re so much better at it than me.”

“A short list?” Steve queries.

“Yeah. You find men who reach your lofty standards - and Steve, I’m not looking for a picket fence together-forever longterm thing here, okay? You make me a list, and I’ll choose someone off it.”

He’s still sort of expecting Steve to balk. To point out that he’s responsible for Bucky’s safety, not his sex-life. But Steve just shrugs and agrees. It’s maybe the first thing Bucky’s asked for once and been given in years, not that he really expects anything to come of it.

But Steve is Steve is Captain America, and five days later he hands Bucky a folder. 

“Just a preliminary sweep,” he says as he lets go. “The front is basic info, the back has the background stuff in case you wanted it. Let me know what you think and I’ll refine my parameters accordingly.”

Bucky hums a few bars of 'Matchmaker, Matchmaker’ as he flicks through the first section. Steve’s taste in men is actually pretty amazing, and varied, and so Bucky tries to resist the urge to ask Steve whether anyone else knows he’s expanded his role to pimp. But this is actually a pretty nice thing for Steve to have done, even if he’s probably trying to set Bucky up with the love of his life instead of a single blazing night of passion.

He shuts the folder and waves it at Steve. “You in here?” he asks, to be obnoxious, and not remotely because he’s feeling maybe sorta disappointed that Steve isn’t.

Steve shakes his head. His mouth’s all twisted up, and Bucky wishes he could take it back. It was just a stupid joke; he doesn’t really think any man who’s into men must be into him. And especially not Steve, who’s frankly too good for the job he’s got, and definitely doesn’t deserve Bucky at his worst. Not to mention that he’s seen Bucky at his worst, so yeah, no chance.

“I like to have the same goals as the person I’m dating,” Steve says. He’s smiling, sort of, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “And I am looking for the picket fence.”

**Author's Note:**

> mainly posted here for posterity...might need to go watch Political Animals again though


End file.
